Avalanche Opens Road Trip at Capitals

Andre Burakovsky lifted the Colorado Avalanche past the Arizona Coyotes to a 3-2 overtime win on Saturday, two nights after scoring the decisive goal in Colorado's 4-2 win over the Boston Bruins. He'll look to help his team stay undefeated as the Avs face his former club, the Washington Capitals, to start their season-long, six-game road trip on Monday.
The Avalanche has started the season 4-0-0, the team's best start since 2013-14, and it's received contributions from all ends. Colorado has16 skaters with at least one point while Philipp Grubauer, also a former Capital, is 3-0-0 with a .931 save percentage, stopping the last 30 shots in his most recent start against the Bruins. Meanwhile, Pavel Francouz earned his first win in his first NHL start on Saturday, stopping 34-of-36 shots on goal to lead the Avs to an OT victory.

The Capitals (3-1-2) are coming off a 4-1 win against the Dallas Stars on Saturday. This will be the first of two meetings between the Caps and Avs this season, the next one in Colorado in February.

Avalanche at Washington Capitals

Capital One Arena | Washington, D.C.
| Game Time: | 3 p.m. MT | | --- | --- | | TV: | Altitude (blackouts apply), NBCSWA (WSH) | | Radio: | Altitude Sports Radio, FM 92.5/AM 950 (KKSE) | | Live Streams: | NHL.tv, AltitudeNow.com, Official app (blackouts apply to all) | | Online Audio: | Listen Live Here | | Follow: | @Avalanche, Official app, Gamecenter |

COLORADO-WASHINGTON CONNECTIONS

The Avalanche acquired Andre Burakovsky from Washington this past June in exchange for Scott Kosmachuk and a second and third-round pick in 2020 … Colorado also acquired Philipp Grubauer from the Capitals in 2018, sending a second-round pick in 2018 to D.C. … Both Grubauer and Burakovsky were members of the 2018 Stanley Cup championship team… Mark Barberio and Capitals forward Richard Panik were teammates on the AHL's Syracuse Crunch in 2012-13 and on the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2013-14.

HISTORY

Colorado holds a 32-42-11 all-time record against the Capitals with a 5-9-2 mark as the visiting team since the 1995-96 season. The teams have met twice a year since 2013-14 and since then, the Avalanche is 3-7-2 in the inter-conference matchup, falling in overtime in both games last year.
Gabriel Landeskog has 14 points (five goals, nine assists) in 13 games against Washington, including his first career hat trick in 2017-18. Nathan MacKinnon has 13 points (five goals, eight assists) in 11 contests, while Mikko Rantanen has seven points (three goals, four assists) in five games versus the Caps.

ROSTER REPORT

Philipp Grubauer is expected to be in net after Pavel Francouz made his first career NHL start on Saturday… Kevin Connauton, J.T. Compher (lower body) and Vladislav Kamenev were the scratches against Arizona.

INJURY REPORT

J.T. Compher missed his second consecutive game on Saturday with a lower-body injury … Ian Cole has been a full participant at practice but has yet to see game action. Cole has been cleared to play after undergoing offseason surgery on both of his hips.

SCOUTING THE CAPITALS

With their 4-1 win over the Stars on Saturday, the Capitals advanced to 3-1-2 on the year and sit in third place in the Metropolitan Division. The Caps finished first in their division last season but lost in the first round of the playoffs in seven games to the Metro rival Carolina Hurricanes.
Through six games in 2019-20, the Capitals have six power-play goals, third-most in the NHL. Two of those man-advantage markers have come off the stick of Alex Ovechkin, who has 249 career power-play goals, the fourth-most all time and the most for any current player.
Washington won both contests against Colorado in overtime last year and has won the last nine of 10 overall.

OPPOSING PLAYER TO WATCH: John Carlson

John Carlson leads all defensemen in points so far in 2019-20, with 10 (two goals, eight assists), which is tied for fourth overall in the NHL. He's also averages the fourth-most time on the ice in the league in the young season, logging 25:47 minutes of ice time per game.
Carlson, who has registered multiple points in each of his last three games this year, has also recorded one point in each of his last five games against the Avalanche (two goals, three assists).

NUMBERS GAME

2

Andre Burakosvky's two game-winning goals this year -- scoring the decisive goal over the Bruins on Thursday, then again in OT against the Coyotes Saturday -- are currently tied for the NHL lead in game-winning goals.

4

Through four games this season, the Avs have scored a combined six goals in the third period. They've surrendered just two, giving them a plus-four margin in the final period.

10

The Avalanche has seen goals by 10 different players in its first four games.

NOTEBOOK

Colorado begins a season-long, six-game road trip at Washington… The Avs are scheduled for a pair of five-game road swings as well (Nov. 12-21 and Feb. 1-9). They have three road trips of five or more games for just the second time in franchise history (also 1999-2000)… The Avalanche finished its season-opening homestand 4-0-0, it's second best start in franchise history (since 1995-96); the Avs started 6-0-0 in 2013-14 … The Avalanche's four straight wins at home to begin a season is its most since 2009-10 (6-0-0) … Colorado is one of two remaining undefeated teams in the NHL (Edmonton, 5-0-0) … Andre Burakovsky scored his second-career overtime goal on Saturday … Colorado has scored a power-play goal in all four games this season and is now 5-for-18 (27.8 percent) in 2019-20.